


System Shock

by InsaneTrollLogic



Series: CW Impulse Fic [1]
Category: Impulse (Comics), The Flash (Comics), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bart crashes the CW 'verse, Family, Gen, Kid Fic, Time Travel, or at least technically kid fic. It feels weird to tag Bart as kid fic.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 21:29:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6825058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsaneTrollLogic/pseuds/InsaneTrollLogic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A kid with super speed appears in S.T.A.R. labs looking for the Flash.</p>
            </blockquote>





	System Shock

**Author's Note:**

> ...Bart Allen crashes the CW 'verse. Because Bart's my favorite. [Heavily influenced by the Flash vol. 4 #92-94.]
> 
> Call the timeline mid-season one. Pre-Wells reveal at very least.

The kid appears in a flash of light, twitches and manages to knock Caitlin’s entire medical kit off of the counter. Cisco scrambles for the comms as the kid slams into a wall in a trail of lightning.  

“Holy new speedster,” Cisco says.

The word speedster appears to freeze the kid, his wide, gold eyes just short of panicked, his hair long and windswept. Cisco feels a wash of déjà vu. The kid looks like Barry. If not for the eyes, Cisco wouldn’t have been surprised if the kid _was_ Barry. A de-aging ray is far from the weirdest thing they’ve seen. He taps the microphone, hoping Barry’s still on patrol. “Flash,” he tries. “We’ve got problem.”

 _Flash?_ Barry’s voice crackles back over the radio and bless him, he knows exactly what the code name implies. _I’m thirty seconds away._

“I can probably make it twenty seconds,” Cisco replies.

 _Twenty then,_ Barry says as the roars of the wind howls through the speakers.

“Whoareyoutalkingto?” the kid asks.

“None of your business,” Cisco says. “Eavesdropping is rude.”

“OK,” the kid replies. “DoyouknowwhereIcanfindWallyWest?”

“Who?” The speech is hard to understand, but Cisco definitely caught the name West.

“Youknow. TheFlash.”

 _Three,_ Barry says over the radio _, two, one._

Barry skids to a halt in the middle of the lab, a trail of lightning crackling behind him.

The kid turns to look at him with big, gold eyes. “Wally!”

The cowl covers the majority of Barry’s flinch, but Cisco knows his friend well enough to read it.

“I don’t know any Wally,” Barry says, frowning. “Look, if you’re looking for someone, for your family, we can help you.”

“IthinkIneedtogo.”

The kid bolts, papers flying in his wake. Barry looks to Cisco. “Little warning about a new speedster would have been nice.”

“He’s like twelve!” Cisco retorts.

“And apparently he thinks someone called Wally West is the Flash.”

“That’s what he said? I was going to try to replay the audio at two percent speed. But I don’t get apocalyptic evil off him.”

“Still have to find him,” Barry says. “Think you can get tracking?”

“So long as you get running.”

Barry blurs out the door.

Caitlin rounds the corner a second later. “Cisco! I heard an alarm.”

“New speedster,” Cisco says, pulling up the tracking program.

Caitlin sits down next to him. “Dangerous?”

“Yes….”Cisco says. “I mean, no. Well, maybe. He’s just a kid.”

“A kid with super speed,” Caitlin says darkly.

“Good point.”

* * *

The kid’s fast, but Barry’s gaining on him. Close enough to see that he’s wearing a friction proof suit in beige and red, his hair windswept, his face…

He looks scared.

They loop through the city, dodging around cars and people. Last time there was a mystery speedster, the man in yellow outpaced him, but Barry is getting closer.

He reaches out, maintaining pace, and puts a hand on the kid’s shoulder.

The kid attacks, landing a few frantic punches a Mach 1. Barry feels the air go out of his lungs. Up close, the kid’s youth is hard to ignore. His attack has no technique behind it, but it’s fast and fueled by what looks like sheer terror. Barry grabs for the kid’s wrist. “Hey, hey, buddy, it’s _okay._ ”

The kid vibrates straight through his grip.

Barry grasps at empty air as the kid zips away.

And that’s not even the worrying part.

* * *

“I swear guys, he was getting older. I could almost see his hair growing. I’m not sure if it was just the speed or… is this even possible?”

“Judging by the residual DNA sample I managed to pull from your suit,” Caitlin says. “I’d say very possible. He’s got the same genetic marker I first observed in you, and his cellular regeneration is off the charts. Unfortunately, what in an adult body translates to hyper-accelerated healing, in a child’s body…”

“Hyper-accelerated growth,” Barry finishes. “How old is this kid really? He looked like he was ten, twelve at the most.”

“Depending on when he got his powers, he could be anywhere from two to the age he appears to be.”

Barry makes a face. “A two-year-old with super speed.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Cisco says from over the computer monitor, “verbal skills seemed way too developed for a two-year-old even if I had to slow down the playback to hear it.”

“He seemed like he knew the Flash,” Barry says, desperate for a lead. “Only he thought my name was Wally.”

“Wally West,” Cisco put in. “Like I said, I ran the recording through a filter to slow it down. I’m working on a list of addresses of most likely candidates. Odds are good he’ll just hit up one of those. You know, Terminator style.”

Caitlin winces.

Cisco pops his lollypop out of his mouth. “Okay, bad metaphor.”

“This is good,” Barry interrupts. “But finding him’s only half the problem. If he’s aging fast enough for me to see it, he’s going to be an old man by the end of the week. He’s just a kid.”

“This isn’t your fault, Barry.”

“But it’s a kid with super speed. It’s sure as hell my problem.” Barry runs a hand through his hair. “Okay, Cisco, get that list. I can check all of them faster than you can manage to narrow the search.”

“We talking nationwide or we just talking Gem Cities, because I’d like to see you try and beat my mad skills.”

Barry ignores him. “Cait, we need a solution for the aging.”

“I don’t even know if it’s possible.”

“Actually, Mr. Allen,” Harrison Wells says, rolling his wheelchair into the room, “I have some thoughts on the matter.”

* * *

The city passes in a blur. There are only two names for Wallace West. One is in Keystone, the other in Central and while the second West has a painfully familiar look that almost made Barry stop, he doesn’t have time for a stake out. Not while there’s some kid blistering through the city, aging with every step.

He checks all the other West houses. Then he checks every street corner. Then he circles the state.

The kid could be anywhere and even if Cisco could locate him, with the head start, there’s no guarantee that Barry would be able to catch up before he lost the trail again.

 _If he breaks the sound barrier we’ve got him,_ Cisco assures him over the radio.

Barry’s stomach growls. “Not to mention that he’s going to have to stop for fuel.”

Like Barry himself. He has a few nutrition bricks that Cisco had made for him stashed at Joe’s house. A pit stop shouldn’t slow him down too much.

Joe’s sitting at the kitchen table when he arrives, watching something with vague apprehension.

“Flash,” Joe greets and Barry stays his hands instead of pulling off the cowl. “We have a guest. Says his name is Bart.”

“BartAllen,” the kid says around a mouthful of pizza. “IwassupposedtofindWallyWestbutyoulooklikeFlash. AreyoutheFlash?”

“Yes,” Barry says carefully. “Allen?”

“Yeah,” Joe answers. “An Allen looking for a West. Imagine that.”

Barry taps his radio. “Cisco. I found him.”

 _Really?_ Cisco answers. _How? I’ve got no reports of lightning, no sonic booms._

Barry taps the radio twice to turn it off, approaching Bart hesitantly. The kid’s still speed eating. Barry hands him one of the spare bricks. “Might not be tasty, but it’ll fill you up.”

The brick disappears in an instant, accompanied by a grimace. “ThinkIlikerealfoodbetter.”

“You think?”

“Iknow,” the kid says. “Definitelybetter. I’msorryIhityou. Yousaidyouweren’tWallybutyou’retheFlash.”

His face has thinned out since the earlier fight. How much age had he put on in just the afternoon? Barry feel a sinking in his gut, one that had started the minute he’d heard the kid’s name.

“You get any of that?” Joe asks him.

Barry nods distractedly, keeping his eyes on the other speedster. He swallows. “Hey, kid, Bart short for anything?”

“Bartholomew,” the kid mumbles.

Bartholomew Allen. Just like him.

Barry takes a deep breath, thinking of Wells’s words. The plan has no guarantee of success, but he has to try. If he leaves this alone, the kid’s dead of old age within a week.

“Heykid,” Barry says, unconsciously speeding up his speech to match the kid’s pace. “I’mnotWally,butwanttogoforarun?”

* * *

It’s no secret.

Barry Allen loves being the Flash.

He loves the feeling of the wind through his hair, the look on his crook’s faces when he disarms them before they can even react. He loves Cisco, Caitlin and Wells directing him through the radio.

But most of all, he loves running.

The same kind of joy is mirrored in the kid beside him.

Barry’s never run with someone else before. Before, it had always been a chase fueled by panic, running from something, running toward something. The man in yellow, just out of his reach.

“Wanttogofaster?” he asks the kid and doesn’t wait for an answer before speeding up.

That was Wells’s plan, his one theory about fixing it even as Caitlin protested, talking about potential gene therapy and science that hasn’t been invented yet. If Bart keeps running, he keeps aging and if he keeps aging, he won’t be here in two weeks.

Barry really wants him here.

And you can’t ask people like them to stop running.

 _Push him past his limits_ , Wells had advised. _Shock his system back to normal._

According to Wells, most problems can be solved by simply _moving faster._

Barry picks up his speed a few hundred miles an hour, with Cisco whooping in his ears. He leads Bart toward the Badlands, the two of them kicking up a cloud of dust and lightning behind them.

He glances sideways. Bart’s face is older somehow, the smile fading to determination.

“Faster,” Barry says.

He can tell the kid is starting to hit his limit. Barry can feel the edges of the speed force himself, the world warping on its edges. Bart starts to falter. Barry grabs his hand and keeps him running, keeps him moving.

Pulls him through his limit.

The kid gasps, his face white and then the lightning around him changes. Barry feels Bart’s hands slip out of his. He heart lurches as he decelerates, rushing to the kid’s side as he convulses in light. Barry taps his radio, yelling over the screams, “Caitlin! He’s seizing.”

“Get him back here,” Caitlin demands.

Barry runs.

(Panic again.)

* * *

The kid looks small tangled in the web of IVs. Barry sits at his bedside, cowl pulled down, face buried in his hands, waiting for him to wake up. He barely knows this kid ( _Bartholomew Allen_ , the insidious voice in his head whispers,  _a speedster named for him_ ) and he already knows he’ll never forgive himself if Bart dies.

The heart monitor next to him displays a flat line, but that’s normal for someone with a speedster’s metabolism. Too fast to catch for the machine even when they’re unconscious.

He hears Cisco come into the room. “It’s not your fault,” he says.

“Sure feels like it is.”

“Had to do something, man.” He sits down next to Barry. “And I heard the name. What’s your bet? Clone? Medical experimentation? Evil twin?”

Barry laughs. “Kid’s a little young to be my evil twin.”

“My money’s on clone, too.”

Caitlin marches into the room a second later, syringe in hand as she moves to take another blood sample. “Preliminary testing says his metabolism’s stabilized. I’m just running some follow up testing. He has some weird protein markers.”

“ _Clone_ protein markers,” Cisco says, but he’s grinning ear to ear.

After a second, Barry realizes he’s grinning as well. “Then he’ll be okay?”

Honestly, he can deal with cloning so long as he doesn’t have to deal with a sick kid.

Caitlin nods. “Dr. Wells was right. The excess of speed in his system was converting itself into rapid aging, you pushed him to the point where was actively _using_ all his speed. Nothing left to put toward his metabolism. It was risky, but shocked his system back to normal.”

“I never want to see a kid seizing like that again.”

Caitlin taps the filled blood vial. “Hence the testing. And I doubt he’s a clone. My preliminary DNA workup suggested a familial relationship with Barry.”

“You hiding a bastard love child from us, dude?” Cisco asks.

“I doubt it.” Barry takes in the lines on the kid’s face. “Little brother, maybe?”

The kid’s eyes bolt open, taking quick note of IV webs and then promptly _vibrating out of them._

Caitlin yelps in surprise. Cisco stands up fast enough to knock over his chair. Barry steps forward and puts a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Whoa. We’re not going to hurt you. Didn’t get a chance to introduce myself earlier. I’m Barry Allen. The Flash.”

The kid frowns for a microsecond and then recognition flickers across his eyes and he blurs forward to wrap his arms around Barry’s waist. “Grampa!” he says.

Barry looks over his head, bewildered, mouthing the word.

“Okay,” Cisco says. “So not a clone so much as…”

“A time traveler,” Harrison Wells finishes as he wheels himself into the room. “One I am quite interested to meet.”

Bart detangles himself from Barry and turns to the new face in the room. He frowns, biting his lip, and says, “…Grampa?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> (so Bart in DC canon, is grandson of Barry Allen on his father’s side and…Eobard Thawne on his mother’s.)
> 
>  ~~(No, I don't have plans to continue. I didn't mean for a cliffhanger, I just wanted the punchline.)~~ *facepalm*


End file.
